DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of the characters that appear there. I've only borrowed them for a while. I will, however, not look nicely at anyone who tries to steal my storyline.
This disclaimer applies the chapter before this and any that might follow.
-----
Heero walked up the black doors that were opened by a silent servant when he knocked. The servant was one of the Manguanac, they were really Quatre's servants but they served all four inhabitants of the house.
"Master Quatre is waiting for you in the usual room." The servant, Abdul Heero's mind supplied, said.
"Hn"
Back in the room he'd left about two hours earlier he found that noting had changed, except that Quatre and the large tiger was now lounging in one of the many sofas.
"What did you find Heero?" Quatre asked his long time friend.
"A master who doesn't know who or what he is." Heero said but didn't offer an explanation. When Quatre understood this he left the room heading for his own chambers.
Quatre irritably paced the carpeted floor of his bedroom. There was more to Heero's sudden excursion than he told and Quatre wanted to know exactly what he'd found, not the avoiding mumbo-jumbo Heero had supplied. For someone that expressionless Heero was surprisingly see-trough at times. The door opened without warning and another man walked into the room. Quatre didn't seem to mind the lack of knocking and just continued to wear a hole in his carpet.
"You know Quatre, pacing the floor like that isn't going to help." The green-eyed man said with the traces of a smile at his lips.
"Not pacing isn't going to help either." The blond said and continued, not noticing that what had before been a beginning of a smile had now blossomed into one. Suddenly he ceased pacing, stared at the wall for a moment or to before slowly sliding to the floor while grabbing his chest.
"Quatre are you okay?" The man named Trowa asked. He'd seen his friend sink to the floor before but he couldn't stop worrying about 'his' companion. Just because it had happened before and Quatre had made it trough without a scratch didn't mean that he'd make it this time too.
"Something's wrong Trowa, I can feel it but I don't know what. I think it has something to do with Heero's sudden disappearance earlier." Trowa carefully eased Quatre into the large bed and lay down beside him holding him close.
"Just let Heero be Heero. We'll get our explanation sooner or later." Quatre sighed and Trowa tightened his arms.
"That's what I'm afraid of. We'll get it later and it will be too late, again I might add, and Heero will already have done something impossible and utterly stupid." Trowa gave his companion a light squeeze before pulling back to look into his eyes.
"You worry far too much Quatre."
"Well I don't see you doing it so I have to take on your share of worrying as well as my own." Quatre answered back smiling, his breath got stuck in his throat as Trowa lowered his head. When Trowa brushed his lips lightly against Quatre's, the blond pushed harder against Trowa demanding more. He felt Trowa's tongue tracing his lips asking entrance and he opened them without a second thought. Trowa slowly pulled away when they both needed to come back for air, and Quatre opened his eyes.
"That was great." Trowa smiled again before returning his lips to Quatre's. Quatre brought his hands up, placed them first on Trowa's shoulders to slowly slide around to grab a hold of the taller man's neck.
A sudden jolt of something raced trough Trowa and faintly surprised but oddly not alarmed he pulled back. Quatre seemed to know what had happened and started to apologize profoundly while trying to disentangle himself from both Trowa and sheets but only succeeding in making matters worse.
"I'm so sorry Trowa, I didn't mean to. No, I did mean to but it wasn't supposed to happen. You'll hate me now. I'd better be going. I'm sorry." Trowa tried to break trough Quatre's inane blabbering to tell him that everything was all right, no harm done, but he didn't seem to be able to get trough to Quatre. Trowa resorted to the one thing he knew would shut the smaller man up, and kissed him again. It worked as planned and Trowa was the first one to recover.
"Now will you listen to me? I'd like to know what happened, but before you say anything I'd like to add that I liked it, whatever it was." Trowa said. Quatre stared at his companion before blushing brightly red.
"You know, um, that my kind also marks their mates?" If possible, he went even redder.
"Yes, I knew that."
"Um, well you see, um…" His voice slowly faded out to nothing.
"Are you trying to tell me that your magic accepted me as your mate and that it initiated the marking?" Trowa decided to help Quatre out.
"I understand if you don't want to see me again." Quatre shrunk away and once again tried to get off the bed.
"No you don't." Trowa said and tightened his arms around his squirming companion. "I'm happy to be your mate and I'm also happy that your magic has accepted me. I love you Quatre and I'll be proud to wear your mark."
"You are? You would?" Gratefulness shone in the little blond's eyes. "I love you too Trowa."
Quatre sighed and buried his face in Trowa's neck.
"Do you feel better now?"
"Hmm?" Quatre asked before nodding and squirming himself closer to Trowa. The tall man lightly kissed the top of the blond head before settling down, content on holding Quatre close.
"I'm sorry Quatre but I need to leave now if I'm to get any sleep at all.""Of course Trowa. Why didn't you leave earlier? I didn't mean to keep you here, you didn't have to stay."
"I couldn't have left you like that Quatre. Good morning," He leaned down and pecked Quatre on the tip of his nose. "see you tonight."
Quatre stirred awake when he felt a strange weight on the bed shift. With his eyes only opened as this slits he felt around more than looked around and encountered a soft but warm something beside him in bed. Shock made him sit up and look at the object even though it did take some time before he could actually see it. There, beside him on the bed, was a sheepish looking Trowa, as sheepish looking he can look at any rate…, which really isn't a lot."Trowa? What are you doing here?"
"I couldn't sleep so I thought that maybe I could come in here. Even if I couldn't sleep I could watch you."
"You shouldn't be up during day, Trowa." Quatre smiled despite his words and moved to one end of the bed while holding the sheets open invitingly. "Come here." Trowa moved next to Quatre who pulled the sheets back up. Both men reached out for the other and smiled when they felt their companions do the same things as they did themselves. They fell asleep quickly, holding each other close much to the delight of the Manguanacs who peered in on them from behind the almost-closed door.
ooooo
Duo woke up in the morning blissfully unaware of yesterday's happenings before his brain caught up with his awoken state. He dismissed everything from the doorbell and on as a dream on the ground that it had been to weird to have occurred in the real world. When he exited his bedroom to get his shower, he noticed that it was slightly chilly in the apartment due to the open window in the living room. He looked around carefully but nothing was missing or standing out of place. Maybe he'd opened it during night because he'd been too warm. Yeah, that must be it.
A quick glance at the clock alerted him that he was late for work but he remembered his decision from yesterday so he called in sick. If he had gone to work he would probably have ran into Solo. Duo had started to work in the same place as Solo since Solo thought it was a good idea for them to have the same schedule, even though they might not always work together at the base. He also had like a million things to do around the apartment but he didn't feel like doing them. Instead, he took a walk around the block.
Duo's neighbourhood was not a fancy one with parks and trees everywhere. No, as he walked he passed rundown buildings, patched roads that were still full of holes and a population that was as rundown and patched as their surroundings. Yesterday's rain had washed away some of the debris that usually littered the streets but there had been too much of it from the start to really make a difference.
He thought of Solo and their time together. He remembered their first date, their first kiss and their first time together. He also remembered their last date, over three months ago. Sure they had been spending a lot of time together but it had been spent as friends or work associates, not as a couple.
Inevitably, his thoughts turned to the dream and the strange man. Duo felt as if he should know the man but he waved it away as a part of an already odd dream. In dreams, you always knew the people in them even if you couldn't see them. It would have been nice if what he'd said had been true though. Not the master part but the part where he said he'd return when Duo called even if he would only return as a dream. Duo didn't feel like being alone but Solo wasn't an option and if he called any of his friends they'd ask where Solo was and he didn't want to explain.
Duo resigned to his fate. Whatever this dream-person had said, he was alone again and he'd stay that way until he died. Everyone that got close to him either died or ended up hurting him, killing a piece of him whichever of the two it was.
Duo had always had to rely solely on his own skills and knowledge, he had never been dependant, and he figured being an orphan and spending the greater part of one's childhood on the streets could do that to a person.
Duo entered his apartment, went to the kitchen, realized that something in the living room had been off, carefully backed out from the kitchen again and saw Heero step out of the shadows, literally. None of the usual being-there-but-not-showing-before-exiting-the-shadows, no this was a shadows-melting-together-to-form-a-solid-figure kind of stepping out of the shadows.
"How did you get in?" Duo asked him with fear tainting his voice.
"You left the window open, master. You called so I came, as promised." Heero said, once again performing half a bow as if trying to remember how to act around a superior. Duo got even more scared as Heero moved closer and closer to him. "I'm sorry it took such a long time to answer your summoning. I'll make it up to you by coming before you call next time. Until then master." Heero said before turning and jumping out the window. Once again, there was a mysterious lack of smashed Heero on the ground.
Duo prepared a microwave dinner as the significance of Heero's visit hit him with the gentleness of a well placed sledgehammer. If Heero was here now, that meant he had been here last night too and the strange dream wasn't a dream at all. Duo didn't know what to think. He had a mystery guy popping in whenever he felt Duo call. But how did he do to call Heero?
ooooo
Heero was in the reading room with a black haired, black-eyed man who was sitting cross-legged on the floor slowly sharpening the sword that lay across this lap.
"Are Trowa and Quatre still sleeping?" The man didn't look up from what he was doing but it didn't matter much since Heero wasn't watching him, opting instead to glare at the non-offending fire.
"According to the Manguanacs they are."
"It's unusual for Trowa to sleep in but who can blame him?" Wufei shrugged his shoulders.
"It was a long time coming."
"Hn." Heero supplied.
"It was so obvious, how they both could miss it is unexplainable but on the other hand, I'll never understand those two."
"I hope you're not talking about us Wufei." Quatre said as he and Trowa entered the room. Wufei looked sharply at him.
"Whatever gave you that idea?" Quatre scowled at the irate Chinese man. Trowa watched the exchange quietly.
"No bickering, children. Quatre be nice to Wufei, he's just returned from his visit at Treize's, you know how he gets." Heero casually ducked the newly sharpened sword. "Settle down, we've got plans to make." Heero said with as cold an expression he got. Quatre, looking properly chasted sat down in a coach facing Heero and Trowa sat down on the coach's armrest, unwilling to give up the comfort of having Quatre close now when he had it, at last. Heero began to talk about the plan, a plan like many others the group had executed in the past.
"Quatre you're going to have to climb trough the air vent to get here," Heero pointed at a map. "and turn the alarm off when you get to the main control room. Trowa and Wufei, you'll go in as soon as Quatre gives the all clear. Wufei I'll take care of any guards you might run into. Trowa you'll take as many of the warheads as you can. Those you can't take you'll destroy. Understood? And leave the fighting to Wufei this time. I know that you want to too but I need you to handle the warheads. You are the only one of us that has encountered this type before. Trust Wufei to do his part of the job." Trowa looked at the floor and nodded but there was a gleam in his eyes that, thankfully, only Quatre saw. Wufei looked at him imploringly.
"What are you going to do?" Heero's expression hadn't changed during the briefing and didn't change now either.
"I'll take out the main security centre."
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"Why not, it's not like you haven't done anything like that before." Wufei said and gave in. After all it was a pretty standard plan, only slightly changed to fit the building's layout and what they were going after.
ooooo
Duo heard his phone call and he slowly and cautiously closed in it. He checked the number on the display; it was an emergency number from work. Strange he thought but in the end, he decided to answer after all.
"Mr. Maxwell, they have broken into the weapon's hangar. We don't…" The call was violently interrupted. Duo felt like taking his guns and rushing to the base but he knew that that was a certain way to get himself dead, in the unstable frame of mind he did just that.
Duo walked carefully up to the building but there was no sign of the catastrophe he'd expected to find there was inkling that anything was amiss on the outside. If the call hadn't come from that particular number he would have thought the call a prank. When Duo walked trough the doors he quickly changed opinion, there was something seriously wrong here. One of the smaller side doors had been blown into the wall on the opposite side. An unlucky solider had been trapped behind the door and there wasn't much left of him except for the wet spot on the wall. It got worse from there, dead and dying soldiers were scattered all over the place, some intact but most wasn't. Duo had feared going to work earlier because he might encounter Solo and, true to form, Duo found him. Mercifully it looked like he was one of the few who'd gotten a quick death. There was a knife sprouting from his left eye socket
Duo stalked around the base, trying to get a clue to who had done this and why. The only thing he found was that all guards were dead but some people who had hid had survived. He couldn't decide whether this was a good thing or not. As he turned a corner Duo saw a smallish shadow dart into a doorway just a short way down the corridor, he readied his gun and fired as he entered the closet sized office, his own office he realized with a slight disconcerting feeling. He saw the man and fired. To his utter surprise the bullet didn't hit despite the fact that he'd aimed right at the man.
When Quatre heard the shot it was almost to late but he got a hand up and stopped the offending projectile. He curiously watched the first man ever to be able to sneak up on him. Duo on the other hand had started to freak out. People does not stop bullets in the air, much in the same way that people don't just leap out the tenth storey window and doesn't get mashed. Quatre took off to find the others leaving a dazed Duo behind him. Quatre knew he ought to have killed the man but unnecessary violence wasn't his thing.
After some time Duo shook himself out his stupor and took up the hunt. The unexplainable bullet-halting-in-midair had been conveniently forgotten. It's not as strange as it looks. The human mind has a habit of erasing things that disturbs it. A 'if I can't see it, it isn't there' kind of policy. Duo silently made his way deeper into the base, towards the main security room.
He heard voices and slowed down even more, it sounded like someone was reporting to someone else, it had a clipped and bored sort of ring to it but he was too far away to hear what was said. Duo slowly reloaded his gun and slowly, very slowly, made his way to the open door. Inside there was four black dressed men talking to each other. Duo thought that he recognized the small form of his earlier 'acquaintance' but he wasn't sure. Never lowering his gun or his awareness. A sudden movement placed him at the side of the door gun trained on the nearest person, who ended up being Heero.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?!" Duo demanded as if the last 24 hours hadn't been taxing enough. Now his mysterious guy showed up in a break-in, a bloody but well done break-in, at the base where he worked. Who'd given happy-pills to whatever being it was that ruled the universe.
"I didn't think I would have to shot you for something." Duo said to Heero, who simply took a steep forward.
"I'll shoot if you get any closer." Duo warned.
"Fire at will, master." Heero said, mimicking the military phrase. "It won't accomplish anything since we won't get hurt but may fire." Quatre glared at Heero.
"Speak for yourself Mr. Indestructible. If he shoots me, I'll get hurt. I was lucky to stop the bullet last time." Trowa looked irked at this and cast a sideways glare at Heero.
"Would someone, please, tell me what the hell is going on!" Duo said somewhere between a question and a command.
"Why don't we finish this and go and have this conversation somewhere less… " Heero looked pointedly around at the corpses and various unsorted body parts. He turned towards Quatre who huffed something about beings too lazy to user their own legs before raising both hands. When he let them down again they'd left the bloody mess that had been Duo's workplace far behind them. They were now standing in a big room that was totally foreign to Duo but the others seemed to perfectly at ease.
"Okay, lets talk this trough as rational people, one, where are we? Two, Why are we here? Three, how the fuck did we get there? Or will you go for option four, you don't want to know and you'd better feint right away?" Hysteria was closing in on Duo. He started to scratch his forehead with his gun, something that made the others a bit nervous since the safety was off and Duo still had the muzzle pointed in their general direction. Quatre silently prayed that none of the Manguanacs would come in, that might have been the last straw for Duo.
"A place we call home, so that we can talk, thanks to Quatre." Wufei quickly ticked the three things of at his fingers. "Heero, why did we bring him here and why does he know your name?" Quatre and Trowa looked at Wufei suspiciously.
"Oh right, you were at Treize's when it happened."
"When what happened?" Duo stood looking confused while he tried to remember in what order he'd asked his questions and then piece them together with the right answer.
"Heero left yesterday, apparently to meet with, um, this person." Duo had finally gotten all the pieces in the right order and he turned to Heero again.
"Back up a bit, what, exactly, are you?"
"Hn, Trowa here, is a werecat, Quatre is a wizard and Wufei is a Demon." Heero pointed at the persons he named.
"Well, that explains everything. I've lost it and so has the rest of the world. Please do not disturb me before I've fastened the screws again. Wait, you didn't tell me what you are."
"I thought you knew master, I'm Heero."
"Um, Quatre was it? Uh, could you do the wavy-hand tricks and take me home, about now?" Heero nodded his head yes but not before relieving Duo of his gun. Quatre did the wavy- hands thing and Duo was gone.
"What on earth, and some other places, makes you think that you can trust a human with that kind of information?"
"Hn." Heero said and left, for dawn was approaching.
Duo opened his eyes relaxed when he saw his own perfectly normal and perfectly ordinary bedroom ceiling. He strongly wished that he could forget what had happened but he couldn't, there had been a few to many strange things to black out without leaving big empty holes in his memory. He did accept that some of the things had to have happened, where was his gun otherwise? But he didn't want to explore how much more there was out there that he didn't have a clue about. Wereanimals, demons and wizards my ass, lucky that Heero seems normal, except that he might be able to fly. Flying can be excused during the circumstances.
Duo wondered if any normal humans knew about this other world, suddenly some things the stranger newspapers had written sounded less insane and more like it could have happened.
He saw the sun rise and he thought of calling in sick again when he remembered the state the base had been in and decided that it wouldn't matter and that it'd probably only be a waste of time.
-----
AN: I forgot to put up a disclaimer in the first chapter (bad me!) How embarrassing.
I hope you like it (please review and tell hint hint )
I've got about 15 000 words of this story written as of today but I have serious trouble with my internet connection and will therefore not be able to update as often as I might wish. I'll try to make it two times a week at least.